Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 28.2 - Storms Before The Catastrophes

"Meg tried to kill me," the Sea King said, coughing.

His lanky fish form was laid out on the bed. He looked quite different to when Robyn had last seen him. Patches of his scales were turning mottled and grey, and he had a periodic twitch in his body.

"You had just dropped into the Abyss," Amidias said, raising a hand at Sid. "I was sitting on the bridge, my fin feeling the ocean and the movements of the creatures within. Meg was near. But shortly after you had dived, a massive creature neared us."

"The Aquatic Scourge?" Sid asked.

"I believe so. It knocked both of us into the water. But in the water, I could feel Meg's magic. She had... it was tremendous. Overwhelming. Immense. Just the glimpse of it almost made me go mad right then.

"But she too realised I now knew who she was in that moment, for I had just told her of my ability to feel the degree of magic in the water. The measure she took was... drastic."

Sid made a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan.

"She told me the Scourge ate you. And I believed her. Because how else could you have died?"

Amidias gave a weak nod. "She hit me with a brimstone blast powerful enough to send me far from shore. A curse that has been eating away at what's left as I lay adrift. I felt that would be my end... until by chance I surfaced near Renee."

"That was when he told me," Renee said. "He told me Meg was the brimstone witch Calamitas. I'd had my suspicions that she was much more powerful than she was letting on, but this..." she shook her head. "I could never have imagined. Her power level is second only to the Tyrant himself. She could have killed me with a single thought. Amidias, too."

Sid scratched his chin. "I wonder why she didn't kill you two outright."

Amidias coughed. "Regardless, I fear I may not have much longer to live. Her curse... it is eating away at me."

Robyn could see. His health bar was orange, less than 1000 of his 7500 health remaining. And the number ticked down by one right in that moment as she was staring at it. A countdown.

To his death.

"Then there's only one thing we can do," Sid said. "Decrypt the last schematic so we can open our own portal to Firstworld. We just need to find some Uelibloom..."

Robyn couldn't bear to be in the same room anymore. It was all so much. So heavy.

She plodded through the lab, passing terminals, hologram projectors and windows that looked out into the sky. She could see her reflection in the glass. See the haggard look in her face, the pink and orange of her shirt, the curls of her hairdo.

But her hair just reminded her of William. She'd gotten the Stylist to do it up in order to appear more beautiful for him.

Now, it was just hair.

She stormed through the lab, looking for Roxanne, eventually finding both her and Cirrus in one of the lab quarters.

"Roxanne!" Robyn shouted. "I need a haircut!"

The Stylist looked up at her in consternation. "Did you even try to brush it today?"

"Of course not!"

She tutted. "Don't be all rude with me! Wait your turn and I'll be right with you."

"Read the room, kid," Cirrus said, jerking a finger up at her head. "I'm getting all the alcohol stains and glass shards taken out of mine."

Robyn groaned but obligingly sat on an empty chair against the wall. While she waited, the two of them continued to talk.

"You know Roxy, I love it when your hands get sticky from all that... wax."